The external drive is simply a hard disk drive housed in a plastic or metal enclosure; therefore, it can fail in much the same way as the internal hard drives, with some additional failure modes. We encounter all types of failures, e.g., an accidental drop of a portable drive, a data recovery external hard drive that will not mount, a clicking desktop drive, a dead bridge board leaving a healthy drive unreadable, etc. As such, whether you were searching for external hard drive recovery or data recovery external drive, the assessment is always complimentary, and in most cases a cost will only be incurred by you if we recover your data.
If it’s clicking or wasn’t recognised, repeatedly plugging your external in and out will only increase your chances of damaging the enclosure and/or the hard drive contained within. We suggest leaving your external alone for now and we’ll work through diagnosing both the enclosure and the drive separately.
With all external devices, the first job is to determine if either the enclosure or the internal hard drive (or other device) was damaged. A failing USB bridge board, a bad power supply, etc., may result in a healthy hard drive being diagnosed as “dead”. Opening the enclosure and using one of our tools to read from the drive will immediately bring it back. If your hard drive has actually physically failed due to issues such as faulty heads, failure of the drive’s motor or a portable drive that was dropped and suffered some form of physical trauma, this would be considered a “physical” recovery. The drive must be disassembled here at our facility so that we can properly assess the extent of the damage.
Portable (typically) 2.5″ drive units are probably the most prone to being dropped; when they are turned on during such an incident and/or drop, the worst-case scenario occurs as follows: the heads of the unit will contact the magnetic surface of the platter(s), resulting in audible “clicking”. If you immediately turn off the unit after dropping it and it begins to click, your chances for success are relatively high: we’ll likely be able to successfully recover the lost data through a head replacement and imaging process. However, if you leave the unit powered on and allow it to attempt recovery, the damage will spread. There is one very simple rule to follow with a dropped, clicking external: unplug it and do not reconnect the unit.
We recover WD My Passport and Elements, Seagate Expansion and Backup Plus, LaCie Rugged drives, Toshiba Canvio and every other portable and desktop external, USB and USB-C alike. We can also recover hardware-encrypted devices which have the encryption residing on the bridge board. In order to recover a device with an encrypted bridge board you will need to include the entire enclosure as well as the cable, not just the bare drive.
Often not. A dead USB bridge or bad power adaptor could easily be hiding a perfectly good hard drive. When we open up the case and connect to the hard drive directly then many “dead” external drives are recovered immediately. If your hard drive itself died then we will repair it physically on our workbench in order to recover it.
Yes: remove it from power and keep it that way. Clicking after a fall indicates a head failure; each time it’s powered on there is additional risk for the platters. Once you have a quote, bring it to us or post it to us and we’ll open it up on our bench and get your data back.
We will need to take the entire unit with the cable included, as well as any external power supply. Some externals contain hardware encryption located on the bridge board. If you send us only the bare drive and don’t include all of the original electronics from the enclosure, then we won’t be able to unlock it even if you provide your password or key.
Typically, if we receive the complete unit (with the original enclosure electronics) and you provide us your password/key when applicable. This is one reason that we always require the complete unit vs. just the bare drive.
Many Canvio and other Toshiba external disks fail at the USB bridge board with the healthy disk inside them, so don’t pull it from its case, nor should you continue to plug/unplug it. Once you get a quote, send it in as it is and we will diagnose it for free; our Toshiba guide page details the most common issues.
Free diagnosis every time, with a firm fixed price quote provided to you before any work commences; plus there is no charge for data recovery on most of the jobs we receive if the data doesn’t come back. Faults such as enclosure or bridge-board faults are normally priced at less than the cost of a full mechanical repair; you will be able to identify which category your problem falls into once you have received your free diagnostic assessment. After obtaining a quotation from us, simply take your unit to The Pinnacle, Leeds (appointment not required) and we will do the rest; alternatively, you can send your unit fully insured by post from anywhere in Yorkshire. Either way, it’s handled in-house by our own engineers and never outsourced.
When searching for external hard drive recovery near me, your postcode is less relevant than the method you choose; and that method is set in stone: don’t open the enclosure yourself; don’t run scanning software over a clicking portable; get it diagnosed for free first.
Once you have a quote you can walk it into The Pinnacle on Albion Street any weekday (no appointment needed); or post it to us fully insured from anywhere within the country. As part of our UK-wide data recovery service, the terms remain unchanged: diagnosis is always free; price will be fixed in writing; and we won’t charge for most jobs unless we succeed.
We offer a free diagnostic check and a fixed written quote for all work we do (with no charge on most jobs unless your information is recovered). When it starts clicking, unplug it until you receive a written quote from us, then send it in.